Can't Say 'Yes'
by Faecat
Summary: Oneshot.  Optimus/Ironhide friendship.  When Optimus discovers just how far humans are willing to go to get what they want, he finds himself in a difficult spot.


_**This is the 2000th review prizefic for **_**Primesbaby007****_._**

_**The request was for an Optimus/Ironhide friend-fic. I think maybe I didn't do so well with the 'friend' part of this fic, but I loved how it came out anyway. ^_~ Hope you enjoy it **_**Primesbaby007****_, and everyone else too._**

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Most days, here on Earth, were rather pleasant. Most days, Optimus found himself marveling at the small beings that occupied this particular planet; their culture was so diverse, and yet so similar to his own in so many ways. Most of the time that was a good thing. Still, there were some days that weren't quite up to the standard, and today had been an exceptional example of one of those days.

The large Autobot leader had been away for several days, meeting with several delegates of different countries. He was so maddened by everything that had transpired, yet at the same time relieved to finally be back at the base he had come to think of as home – for now – that he didn't even bother with his usual greetings to those he passed. He just wanted to get somewhere he could be alone. He needed to unwind from all the twisting negotiations; humans could be so complicated. That was one of the things that they shared with his own kind that he strongly detested when it came to things like negotiations. The humans knew what they wanted, and they would do what they had to so that they could get it. Anything they had to – much like some Cybertronian politicians he had known.

"Welcome back Optimus," Ratchet greeted as the mech neared. "How did things go with the humans?"

Optimus had the urge to just shout all of his current frustrations at the medic. Instead, he only offered a dismissive wave. It wasn't the CMO's fault after all. "Not as well as I would have liked," he practically growled as he passed by. He had no desire to stay and chat as he normally would.

Ratchet was a little surprised by Optimus's temper – he knew the mech could be dangerous when angered, but he had seen it so rarely that it was a little circuit wrenching. He could only imagine what must have happened to make the normally calm mech so uptight. "How badly did they go?" He asked before Optimus was beyond polite conversation range.

"Very."

The CMO could only watch as his leader continued his swift retreat. "This isn't good," he commented to no one in particular. He hoped that whatever Optimus's frustrations were, he could work them out quickly. It wouldn't be good for the rest of the crew to see their leader in such a state. For many of them, that was all they would need to set them on the edge of declaring war with the tiny organics that occupied this planet.

Optimus found his office much as he had left it; only with a few more things piled on his desk awaiting his attention. Likely more requests from the humans. He shuddered as his rage mounted yet again. How could they ask for anything after what they had done? How could they expect him to turn a blind optic to their betrayal and continue on like nothing had happened?

He slammed his hand on the mechanism for the door before storming away in a pure cloud of anger. There would be no peace found in there with all of those requests, demands, reports, and other such reminders that the humans they had trusted had been so deceitful.

Leaving the base just as quickly as he had come roused some suspicions from many of his friends and comrades – both Cybertronian and human alike.

"Hey, Optimus," Major Lennox called as he saw the large mech crossing the open fields of the base. The mech was a good distance from him, but he knew that his alien friend could hear him just fine. "What's going on?"

Optimus stopped for a moment. Even in his anger he couldn't be upset with the humans that had been loyal to them, the ones that had stood beside them even when their own kind had threatened them not to do so. "It has been a very rough orn," he sighed. "I simply need some time to think."

William Lennox knew that the Autobot Leader was upset, if by no other sign than his short explanation. Optimus was normally pretty open with his thoughts to the major. "Okay," Will called back, "let me know if there is anything I can do."

"You, major, are one of the few that has done all I could ask of you." With that, Optimus continued on his way, his temper no lessened by being reminded that not all humans were as bad as the ones he had just been debating with.

Will, however, was not encouraged by Optimus's reply. "This isn't good," he thought aloud as he watched Optimus's retreat. Whatever had the mech in such a foul mood, Will was sure that his species was the cause of it, but if Optimus wouldn't tell him about it, then he had to find someone he would tell.

The major took off for the Autobot's section of the base at a healthy jog.

Optimus didn't stop until he could no longer see the base. True, he thought of it as home, but today it was too full of too many things he didn't want to face. Out here he felt as though he could fully cycle his vents, cooling his system, and sort his thoughts.

The truth of it was, he really wasn't as angry as much as he was hurt. It had been eons since he had placed such trust into anyone that wasn't his closest of comrades. He had extended his hopes along with his trust that the humans and Autobots might co-exist peacefully, yet it seemed that some of them only wanted war. That had been how this war they fought now – the one that was rather efficiently destroying their entire race – had begun. It only took a few beings with the right words in the right places to drive an entire race to self destruction.

"Perhaps I have trusted too much..." he thought aloud.

"You always do," a gruff voice answered, "but that's one of your most inspiring traits."

Optimus had been so distracted by his own frustrations, he had not even noticed the other mech approaching. "Ironhide."

"Sorry to interrupt, but you kind of made a scene back at base. Everyone's concerned."

"So they sent you to investigate?" Optimus and Ironhide had been friends for a long time, and there were several things that the Autobot leader knew about his weapons specialist. One of them was that Ironhide was not one to be interested in other's 'feelings', so to speak.

"No, not really. Will said you looked pretty upset, and Ratchet warned me there was a walking time bomb around here somewhere...I can only assume he meant you. Thought I'd come see if there was something needing blown up." Ironhide shrugged as he found a rather large natural structure to sit on. Obviously there was nothing out here worth destroying, so he thought he might as well make himself comfortable. "What's got your gears so locked up?"

Optimus didn't say anything for a long time. He knew better than to just blurt out whatever he was thinking to anyone – that was a lesson hard learned long ago. As Prime, he had a duty to maintain control over everything, including himself, at all times. "How well do you think we know the humans?"

"As a species?" Ironhide was a little thrown by the question. Optimus knew exactly how much research had gone into the human cultures, and he was probably the most educated 'bot on the planet as far as all of that went. Well, except perhaps for Bumblebee who lived among them experiencing their culture first hand. Even then, Optimus was the one to receive the scout's reports to study. "Not a whole lot. Why do you ask?"

"I fear they may be far more deceptive than we wished to believe."

"Than you wished to believe, maybe. I never trusted them."

"You do not trust anyone."

"That's not true!" Ironhide protested, though not with any amount of hurt to Optimus's claim. He really didn't trust most, but there were a few beings he had come to believe in. "I trust you."

"I am starting to believe that may not have been a wise thing, my friend."

"You're only starting? I've known it from the first time I followed you into battle, Prime. You think with your spark more often than your processor. But what you don't get is that the wise thing, isn't always the right thing."

Optimus turned to Ironhide, a look of pure astonishment on his face. "That is rather insightful."

"What? You think I'm nothing but cannons? I've got a processor that works."

"If only you would engage it more often..." Optimus teased.

"Haha," Ironhide muttered, not amused. "If I did that, you'd be out of a job."

"More likely my systems would have ceased from the improbability of it."

"Hey, at least I know how to let things go." The weapons specialist looked at his long time friend, and leader, as if daring him to deny the claim. "Now, you want to tell me what happened? Or are we just going to keep insulting each other; because I'm game either way."

Optimus seemed to consider the idea for a moment. Bantering with Ironhide could go one of two ways – either they would end with the blows of a friendly; albeit violent, sparing match, or with a good discussion over things the Prime couldn't admit to most of his comrades. Either way, Ironhide never failed to help the Autobot leader maintain his levelheadedness by giving him some UN-level outlet from time to time.

"Remember when we went to that gathering with all of the diplomats from around Earth?"

"I try not to," Ironhide groaned. It had been one of the longest 'days' – as humans called the cycles of this planet – of his entire existence. He hadn't even understood half of what was discussed, but had the very clear impression that they were getting the proverbial 'short-stick' well before the meeting was a quarter over. "Why are you just now getting all bent out of function over it?"

"At the time, I had been convinced that – though the humans seemed to request unreasonable things – they only wanted what they thought was best for themselves, and those around them."

Ironhide chose not to put his opinion of humans in at this point. Optimus had never agreed with his reasoning that humans were far more trouble than they were worth in the grand scheme of the universe, but Ironhide also agreed with Optimus's continued insistence that sentient creatures had a right to choose how they lived, or died, for themselves.

"However, today I was presented with this." Optimus produced a small, semi-translucent cylinder-like item from one of his hidden compartments. It had a dull, dark glow to it that looked entirely unnatural.

Instinctively, Ironhide pulled away from the offensive little thing, his systems prickling with the need to destroy it immediately. "What is that?"

"What does it look like?"

"Dark Energon."

"That is correct."

"What?" Ironhide leaped to his feet, moving further from the substance even as he tried to comprehend why his friend had it, and where he had gotten it from. "Where the _Pit_ did it come from?"

"The humans."

"How?"

"They will not say."

"Why?" Ironhide's anger was mounting, growing stronger than his apprehension for the substance.

Optimus vented heavily. "As they put it; 'because they could'. They intend to use it to develop anti-Cybertronian weapons."

"Don't they realize how dangerous it is? They could destroy their entire planet with one little miscalculation!"

"They are aware. Apparently, they do not care."

Ironhide could only gape in dumbfounded astonishment. "They don't _care_?"

"Not if it gets them what they desire, apparently not." Optimus tucked the offensive item away again. Refusing to meet his friends optics he turned to face the ocean. "They presented me with an ultimatum; release Cybertronian weapons technology to them, or they would do it on their own. I attempted to explain to them the foolishness of their line of thinking, but was confronted with the argument of 'who was I to decide what was right for them'. I explained that, though their decision was dangerous, and that I would do much to stop them from endangering their planet with this corruption, I could not release that information to them."

"You did the right thing...even if I think they should all be removed from existence..."

"That was not the end of the negotiations," the Autobot leader admitted dejectedly. "I could not in any capacity allow the humans to maintain hold of the Dark Energon, even if they did not wish to relinquish it. We came to an agreement."

Ironhide felt his anger shifting slightly. Optimus was one to put much at risk for what he thought was right. "You caved..."

"Not entirely. I gave them some shielding technology. After all, there are less immediate dangers they can create with that, and it _will_ aid them in their defenses against the Decepticons. I do not believe it was a poor decision."

"But there's more to it than that, isn't there?" Ironhide was feeling a pattern developing here, and he was pretty sure he wasn't going to like where it ended.

"Unfortunately so. I agreed to trade the shielding technology in exchange for the Dark Energon they possessed."

"And you got it."

"I got what they possessed 'at the time of negotiations'. It turns out that the humans consider possession by very complicated rules; what was possessed by the negotiators at the time was not the full amount that the humans possess as a race. Apparently, a large portion of it belongs to a private party; which they chose not to mention until well after the arrangement had been verified."

"They lied."

"Technically, they did not."

The weapons specialist glared at his leader's back for quite some time. The mech was obviously very upset by this, Ironhide could see it in every tense twitch of every plate making up the Prime's back, yet still he followed the rules. He still intended to hold up the currently unstable peace they had with the humans. If the warrior took a few breems to think it all through – Optimus was doing the right thing by all of them. Without the humans willingly allowing them to stay, they would either have to become like the Decepticons themselves by enforcing their presence against human will; probably destroying many of them in the process, or they would have to leave the planet and let the humans fend for themselves against an enemy that – no matter how inventive the humans could be – would eventually win out. Even Ironhide could not convince himself to do that; not after knowing some rather redeemable humans.

There really was only one solution. "So, what do we do about it then?"

"What can we do?" Optimus actually sounded at a loss for a solution.

"Well," Ironhide shifted loudly, indicating he really didn't have any idea, "we can't leave it with them."

"No, but I cannot think of a way to remove it from their possession without starting a fight."

"I can't say I'm against that idea, personally, but I know you are. What can we use to get it from them? Maybe, push their hand, like they did yours? Something they don't know about Dark Energon?" Ironhide was really blowing steam, trying to spark an idea in his leader's processor that would lead to some solution that could leave them all satisfied.

"I do not actually know all that much about it – the last known history on the substance was lost in the outbreak in the early Golden Age."

"Outbreak?"

"A plague that ran rampant through the outer colonies; well before my time. Some resource minors had become infected and were brought for care to one of the outlaying colonies. It spread through spark energy contact, fluid contact, and input receptors. The main cause of spread was largely the fact that the infected 'bots became violent and attacked anything that moved."

"What does that have to do with the Dark Energon?"

"It was discovered in the mines the original..." Optimus paused, a clear plan coming to the forefront of his processor, "in the mines the original infected 'bots had been pulled from."

Ironhide still felt a little confused, but was confident that Optimus was coming up with an answer to their current problem. "Did it cause the outbreak?"

"It was never made clear if that was the cause or not; there was never another outbreak." Optimus turned to his friend, a large smile gracing his previously forlorn features. "Thank you my friend, I believe you have given me what I need to avert a tragedy."

"Uh," the warrior shrugged, "anytime, Prime."

It took exactly seven Earth days past the conversation between the Autobot Prime, and weapons specialist that the humans were all but begging the mechs to come claim the rest of the 'volatile' and 'potentially contagious' substance known as Dark Energon.

Between Optimus's gentile persuasions, and slightly too graphic holographic depictions of the outbreak surrounding the discovery of Dark Energon by Cybertronians, and some apparently alarming results from the human scientists, the humans couldn't seem to rid themselves of the stuff quickly enough.

"You're sure they won't be able to trace it, right?" Ironhide crouched to be more on the same level as the small human near his foot.

"I'm no second-rate hack, big guy," the man assured the mech with a rather enthusiastic thumbs-up gesture. "If they ever do break that coding, and trace it anywhere, it's not going to be until long after my great grand kids are dead and gone. No worries!"

Ironhide nodded his appreciation. "I guess not all of you are so bad," he admitted somewhat sarcastically. He had bribed the hacker to release some false information into the results the human scientists had been reading on the Dark Energon, making the substance report being highly radioactive, carcinogenic, and unstable – among other things.

"Yeah, some of us like video games too much," the man joked happily. He felt like he was on cloud nine for techies right now; there was nothing quite like making deals with alien robots to access large amounts of unreleased video game data with systems that could not be detected, and the only thing he had to do was convince some science geeks that the very dangerous stuff they were playing with was more dangerous than they thought. For all he knew, for all anyone knew actually, it could have been more dangerous; why take the chance?

The two parted at the conclusion of their meeting; agreeing not to contact one another again.

::I would ask what that was about,:: Optimus stated through a private com. with the weapons specialist, ::but I am pretty sure I would not be pleased to know.::

::Hey,:: Ironhide replied defensively, ::you 'negotiate' your way, I 'negotiate' my way. We got what we needed, there's no reason to ask any questions about it.::

::You have far more in common with the humans than you may care to believe, my friend.::

::Say it again and I can show you how much you have in common with my cannons.::

For the first time in several orns, Optimus Prime laughed. It seemed that no matter how dark things seemed to be, there was always something enlightening to be learned from it.

Like the fact that Ironhide could think with more than just his cannons...

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_**Yes, I do realize there are SEVERAL plots laying in wait of a good story to follow up on them, but – **__**unfortunately – no I do not intend to expand on this oneshot. Sorry. I currently have several other things on my list of things to write (including some that have been there for well over a year...I'm such a slacker sometimes), so until I complete those; I can't really add anything more. (aside from a few oneshots here an there for sanity's sake.)**_

_**At any rate! Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.**_

_**Thank you **_**Primesbaby007**_** for the plotbunny. It was a fun one.**_


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